She would recognise her anywhere, even in this dim light. The way she sat, with her hands around her knees; the shape of her chin and the angle of her nose, peering out from under a soft pink Stetson hat.
‘Nice hat,’ said Zoe stiffly.
‘Thanks,’ said Caity, without offering an explanation.
‘Where’d you get it?’
Caitlin shrugged. ‘Scott gave it to me, why?’
Damn. Scotty had found it. He would know she had been to the property. Damn, damn, damn. He would warn his father. She needed a phone.
‘So, no idea who took our clothes?’ she said, knowing what a waste of breath it was.
Caity smiled casually. ‘No idea. Where’d you leave them?’
Evil shrew. She had them.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Mike from behind her. ‘I have a spare key hidden in the car. Come on, Zoe.’
He turned and marched away. Zoe followed, with Josh and Tahnee pacing behind.
‘Do you really have a spare key to the car?’
‘No,’ said Mike miserably.
‘Then what are we going to do? It’s about ten kilometres back to the showgrounds,’ she groaned.
‘I reckon we should muster those Angus into the yards,’ said Josh. ‘See if we can fire up that old truck that’s hidden there. If the brands match yours we should load them up and take them away. At least Scotty’s dad can’t hide them then.’
‘What if they’re not ours?’ said Mike.
‘Let’s get them in a yard and find out,’ said Josh. ‘There are some portable ones in a paddock corner.’
They set out on foot, across the hillside and Zoe looked back at Caitlin. She and her little cluster of girlfriends were gone.
‘She’s gone to tell Scotty,’ said Zoe.
‘Then we’d better hurry up,’ said Josh, breaking into a run.
The dogs took no time to get around the black cattle, forming a tight cordon around them until they filed into the yards. Mike closed the gate behind them.
‘I’m going to break into that old truck,’ said Josh. He had stopped shivering and his jeans seemed to have dried out somewhat, but Zoe trembled and her teeth chattered loudly. ‘There might be a torch or an old blanket or something in there to keep you warm.’ He stooped to pick up a piece of old fencing wire and made his way through the scattered trees.
He found a doorhandle and yanked on it and then slipped the wire through a tiny gap at the base of the window, pushing it down into the door cavity. With a pull and a click, the door unlocked.
He crawled in and flicked the interior light switch, then unlocked the other door. Zoe trotted around to climb in the other side. Again, she felt the most bizarre sense of familiarity. She knew this truck. ‘There’s a torch down the side of the driver’s seat,’ she said.
Josh reached down and found it. ‘How did you know that?’
She looked at him wide-eyed. ‘I’m not sure,’ she said slowly. ‘Um, there is also a road map up here.’ She pulled down the sun visor, and a folded map slipped out. Not that they needed it. But it was creepy that she knew it was there. ‘I know this truck,’ she said in a haunted voice that didn’t seem to belong to her.
‘You do,’ agreed Josh. ‘How?’
‘I don’t know.’ She turned around, and pulled a woollen blanket out from behind her seat.
As she settled it around her shoulders, she felt a sickening warmth crawl up her arms. Her heart began tumbling around in her chest. ‘I feel really sick,’ she whispered.
‘Are you okay?’ Josh jumped out his side and ran around to her.
‘What’s happening?’ Tahnee’s voice came around from the side of the truck. ‘Hey, that’s Caitlin Bowers’ truck.’
Something suddenly flared up painfully inside Zoe’s head; it whooshed liked kero chucked on a fire. Her chest heaved and she fought for breath.
‘Should we get her to a doctor or something?’ asked Josh.
‘How?’ said Tahnee. ‘We don’t have carkeys, or a phone.’
‘It might be an anxiety attack,’ said Mike. ‘She has them sometimes.’
Zoe felt his hand on her hair as she fought to breathe. Their voices tuned in and out as if someone was playing with the volume button.
I’m walking. Everything is hurting but I have to get back to the yards. I have to find help.
She let herself go limp in Josh’s arms and he curled them around her. She swallowed hard and opened her eyes. Before her was the cabin of the truck. Why did that distress her so much? What was her body trying to tell her mind? What was she supposed to remember?
The truck’s brakes lock and scream. Tyres slide over gravel. Cattle bellow in the back.
Everything is spinning. At the centre of the vortex is Mr Bowers, staring at me through the window of a truck.
Zoe stared at the windscreen of the Bowers’ truck. ‘He nearly ran over me,’ she whispered.
‘Who?’ asked Josh.
‘Mr Bowers; he was stealing our cattle. I saw him,’ she said. ‘And he saw me.’
Zoe put a hand against the side of the truck and closed her eyes while she tried to piece together the jigsaw that was her mind. In what order did everything happen? It was becoming clearer now. The pieces were beginning to slot together neatly.
Josh set her down against the raspy trunk of a yellow box tree. ‘Stay here while I go and get help.’
‘No!’ Zoe felt suddenly panicky. She couldn’t see straight. It was scary. ‘I don’t want to be alone.’ She clung tighter to his neck.
‘Shhh, it’s okay.’ He ran his hand over the back of her head. ‘You’ll be fine.’
‘I’m scared.’
She heard him laugh softly. ‘Scared of what?’
‘I can’t see. I’m scared I’ll die.’
‘You’re not going to die, Zoe. You’ll be fine.’
Still she clung to his neck. The thought of being alone like this was terrifying.
‘Just . . .’ He peeled her arms from around his neck and tried to set her down. ‘Let go, you’re strangling me.’
Zoe started to cry shamelessly. ‘It really hurts.’
He sat next to her and held her again. ‘Shhh, it’s okay.’ He kissed the top of her head. ‘You’ll be fine, Zoe.’ He lifted a hand and gently touched the side of her face. ‘Your face is a mess.’
She lifted her chin, pressed her lips to his and kissed him.
At first he flinched in surprise, but then he kissed her back, slowly, cautiously. She could taste the salt of her own tears on his lips. ‘You need help,’ he whispered into her kiss.
‘I need you,’ she whispered back, clinging to him.
He kissed her again.
Everywhere hurt. Her hip, her ribs, her wrist throbbed as it rested on his shoulder. Pain pulsed rhythmically through her head, but his kiss took all of it away. His hand slid through her hair and for a moment nothing else existed. She lived only inside his kiss.
He broke gently away. ‘I should go and get the ute.’
She licked her lips. ‘Thirsty.’
‘There’s water in the ute. Just stay here, try to stay awake.’
He whistled sharply and then she heard him run across the paddock.
She didn’t know how long she sat there for, while the trees whispered all around her. The clouds swirled too fast in the sky. Life seemed to stop and start in erratic bursts of clarity and foggy patches of eerie nothingness. She frowned, confused. Who was that guy? What was she doing here? Where was Scotty?
She looked down at her riding boots. The cattle. What happened?
Blackjack?
She could see the blurred silhouette of him across the paddock with his reins dangling, head low, hopping on three legs. She stood and tried to focus. ‘Jacky.’ She walked to him, every step sending pain through her head.
Blackjack hobbled towards the yard with slow steps. The cattle were bellowing loudly, too loudly. Something was wrong. Zoe staggered after him, through the narrow stands of yellow box trees, in and out of the shadows and stepped onto the old dirt track.
A truck revved nearby. She looked up in alarm . . .